Week Eight Reflection: Chapters 11 and 12

1. How does the task presented in class (examining fair tests) compare to the content covered in chapter 11?

The task presented in class is parallel with the content covered in chapter 11. Chapter 11 mentions most of the practices and ideas we presented in class. In class and in the chapter, students are encouraged to contribute data about themselves. When children contribute data about themselves, it makes the data relevant to them, I think it makes things easier for them to understand. They also have a chance to realize that the information is coming from a familiar population, and they learn about themselves and their peers in the process. We also created a table and could have made a graphical representation of the data that we found. In class we used different methods to measure our wrists. The whole class was given a chance to decide what we would use to measure, how we would measure, which wrist we would measure, and other important aspects of the experiment to make sure all data was consistent among everyone. The ideas that were presented in class and the ideas in Chapter 11 were very similar and consistent.

2. What are you seeing related to data analysis and probability in your own classroom settings?

In my third grade classroom, my teacher uses graphs and tables every day. Every day the students have a math review at the beginning of the day for standardized testing purposes. Each day the students have a portion where they analyze data in a table or graph or they have a portion about simple probability. My teacher also records the reading stamina of students during reading time by graphing the progress or lack of progress on a bar graph. The bar graph is displayed in the room so that students can refer to how they are progressing in reading stamina times throughout the year.

3. Examining the SC early childhood content standards (K-3) for data analysis and probability. How do the state standards compare to chapters 11 and 12?

The state standards and Chapters 11 and 12 are similar. Under the state standards students are expected to: interpret, analyze, and organize data, make graphical representations, demonstrate and understanding of simple probability, and make educated predictions about data. Each grade level builds off of the previous grade level's indicators. The concepts and lesson ideas require students to do all of the above. The suggestions in Chapters 11 and 12 are helpful and relevant to the South Carolina mathematics standards for data analysis and probability. The lesson ideas and concepts found in the chapter can be adapted appropriately to specific grade levels and appropriate indicators.